NaNoWriMo is the annual attempt by many tens of thousands of people to finally get that novel out of their head and into the cloud storage option of their choice. The goal is to write a 50,000-word novel by midnight on the 30th November, and you can get there by fair means or foul. The rules? It has to be a novel, it has to be 50,000 words (or more) long, and it has to be written in November.

The tools you will need most to write your NaNoWriMo novel are inspiration and a lot of perseverance. Luckily, apps can help you with both. Here’s the definitive guide to NaNoWriMo apps on the Mac and iOS. If you can’t drag that novel kicking and screaming into the world with the help of these apps, you can’t do it at all.

D&D players know the importance of a good character sheet. While dexterity, strength, charisma and alignment are key, it’s the scribbles you make between the boxes which will shape your character. And so it is with fiction, which is where Mariner’s new Mac app Persona comes in.

Persona is a character creation and tracking package for writers, and gives you simple tools to help with everything from naming your creations to tracking their every personality trait.